One of those weeks at the RNC

ONE OF THOSE WEEKS AT THE RNC…. It’s been an unpleasant week at the Republican National Committee, and party staffers no doubt hoped they could ride out the recent embarrassments surrounding Voyeur West Hollywood, and move on to less salacious matters.

The Republican National Committee inadvertently sent a fundraising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone sex line offering to connect callers with “hot horny girls … students, housewives, and working girls from all over the country.”

“We love nasty talk as much as you do,” says a woman’s voice on the sex-line’s audio recording.

Doug Heye, the RNC’s communications director, said … the mix-up happened when the direct mail firm replaced the RNC’s “202” area code with an “800” area code.

To be sure, it’s an honest mistake that could have happened to anyone. At least, I assume it was a mistake — if the party uses bondage clubs to impress donors, I suppose anything’s possible.

But what I find especially amusing about this is that the fundraising piece in question was made to look like a census form, as part of an RNC scheme to sucker their donors into opening the mailed appeal.

A voter in Minnesota received the mailer and called the number intending to complain about the attempt to raise money with a form that looks like a government document.

But the Minnesotan was instead directed to a second toll-free number that greets callers as “sexy guy” before offering them the chance to talk with “real local students, housewives and working girls from all over the country.”

In other words, the Republican National Committee’s deceitful fundraising tactic accidentally encouraged its donors to call “hot horny girls.” It’s a great example of sleaze being compounded by additional sleaze.

For the record, the RNC’s fake-census letters were so sordid, Congress changed federal law to make such fundraising letters illegal. And that was before lawmakers realized the RNC was inadvertently promoting a phone sex line.